Bucharest mayor drops pollution tax after heavy criticism

Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea announced that she would withdraw the eco vignette for polluting cars entering the city center, also known as the “Oxygen tax”, due to negative feedback.

Firea came up with this tax last year and Bucharest’s General Council adopted it on October 24. The regulation also banned cars with Euro 3 engines or lower from entering the city center while those who own cars with Euro 4 engines had to pay a tax to pass through the city center. The vignette was introduced on January 1, 2020, and the first sanctions for car owners who didn’t comply with the new regulations were supposed to be enforced starting March, Romania Insider reads.

The Bucharest City Hall organized a survey on Facebook asking the city’s residents if they agreed with the new Oxigen tax. There were about 60,000 comments to this survey, 90% of which were against the tax, Firea said on Tuesday. She added that her decision to drop the Oxygen tax will also pass through the General Council in March.